| Author: | Jeff Astley, David Brown, Ann Loades (Editors) |
|---|---|
| Published By: | SPCK (London) |
| Pages: | 131 |
| Price: | £12.99 |
| ISBN: | 9 780281 061846 |
This is an excellent introduction to Christology for those who want to look at some key texts in the debates of both the early church and of the last fifty years around the doctrine of the person of Jesus. The book sets out to explore four key areas: the shape of the debate about the identity of Jesus in the New Testament texts and early Fathers; the modern debate about the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith; the humanity of Jesus and the concept of kenosis; and the development of feminist and liberation theologies and the perspective on Jesus from other cultures and traditions.
The book offers a range of texts from authors such as Barth, Kung, Wiles, Wright, Tillich, Cupitt and Coakley and introduces us to their thought through judicious selection of their writing. Inevitably some names are missing - it would have been good to have read an extract from John Robinson, Geoffrey Lampe and James Dunn for instance. However the selection does not claim to be comprehensive! Readers of Ministry Today might find particularly illuminating, as I did, the contributions in the fourth chapter from these wider perspectives and especially the black and Asian Christologies. Several of the extracts were from names that I had heard of, but never read, and I was glad to be introduced to them.
There is a short four page introduction which sets the scene well and this could have been expanded and developed further. The bibliography is extensive and helpfully arranged in relation in relation to each chapter and theme. Each chapter ends with ‘Topics for Discussion‘ and I’m not sure whether these are intended for student seminars, personal reflection or theological study group conversation.
It may be some while since many practising ministers engaged in reading or discussing the texts and issues presented in this book. It would be no bad thing if a few fraternals or clergy Chapters took a chapter of this book every now and then and engaged in some serious study and dialogue with one another.You are reading Issue 47 of Ministry Today, published in November 2009.
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